Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)

The cumulative effect of those levies would be to require somebody on the average industrial wage to pay 6% of his or her income. How can that be reconciled with the Sinn Féin rhetoric of abolishing the universal social charge and taxing the rich so the working poor do not have to pay? The reality of what Sinn Féin is proposing is not the abolition of the universal social charge - it is the renaming and rebranding of the charge. That is all it would mean to the average person who is paid an industrial wage in this State. That is the reality of the matter. There is a stark difference between what Sinn Féin says in this motion and what it said during the general election campaign. I never heard anyone from Sinn Féin say during the campaign that the party wanted to reinstate the health and income levies.

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